With nearly 3.3 million cars in the city, Beijing's air quality ranks among the worst in the world. The image above is not from some massive fire - it's smog. Officials in China are well aware of athletes' concern about the country’s pollution and its ill-effects on their health. So they’re implemented a stop-gap solution: ban cars. Starting July 20, officials hope to engage a program that will take 45% of those cars off the road on alternate days, banning cars based on the last digit in their license plate number.
The majority of Beijing’s 12 million metro-area residents are less than thrilled about the even-odd car ban, but with air pollution levels five times worse than the World Health Organization’s minimum standards for safety, they need to do something drastic if they’re going to have any sort of impact on air quality before the Olympics. The city will be awarding those affected by the ban with a three month exemption from vehicle-related taxes (gee thanks) at a price tag of 1.3 billion yuan, payable by the Chinese government.
<!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -->
Flag this Content as Inappropriate